Mexanese Mumbo Jumbo

Every year, at the end of the beach vball season, we always talk about having a windup party since it's usually another 8 months before most of us see each other again. Of course, our windups never happen. Just like that random high school friend you happen to run into on the street and say 'let's get together one day', knowing full well, you never will.

This year however, Bailey decided to change the pattern. After weeks of trying to find a date that worked for past & present team members, we finally made it out a couple of weekends ago for a much needed night of debauchery. I arrived to said event only to find a whopping 5 people from our team show up, one of them didn't even play all year due to shoulder surgery and the other was my sister who only occasionally subbed for us. Oh well, what was one to expect when you have a team of delinquent boys. Aside from possibly holding casting calls and putting the male team members through rigorous interviews to ensure they are capable of committing to one day a week for the summer season.

As the night proceeded, the pint glass was never empty. We watched the Canucks game and shortly after it was done, we were joined by fellow GIB cohorts who had taken clients to the hockey game. That's when the trouble began. Now, having GIB reps on your summer vball team comes in handy in many ways. They will usually provide the beer for the entire season and they are always good for a big bender. This night was no except.

We decided to continue the evening at Lamplighter, a pub/bar/whatever I am growing to quite like. That's also roughly when the loss of memory began, although not before running into the cute boy that used to live down the hall, who moved out this summer, and for the entire time we were neighbours, I never knew his name. (His name is Spencer for anyone who cares, but I prefer nick names for my crushes so he will forever be known as 'the cute boy from down the hall')

The debauchery began, involving beer, tequila, vodka, a poorly played game of foosball by Dean and I who were clearly lacking our usual cat-like reflexes and ended with a Roxy appearance for some, and a very dodgy cab ride involving the spins for me. Clearly I need to do some training for the next time I go out with the GIB boys. The last time I had the spins in the cab ride home, I am pretty sure I had drunk my weight in beer but apparently I can't keep up anymore.

I have been recently plagued with what I thought was the "Fjord Flu" that's been going around the office, but it turns out, I have tonsillitis. If anyone has not had this before - I really hope you don't. I honestly don't know how kids handle this - I feel like I barely survived it. Without going into specifics, I have spend the last 4 days alternating between the couch and my bed, watching tv shows & movies & napping and secretly hoping I will fit into that one pair of jeans since my diet has consisted of 1/2 cup of soup, a slice of bread and tea for the last 3 out of the 4 days.

After a day of antibiotics, I decided to try to go to work for the afternoon, partially because I could no longer access my email from home due to a full inbox and partially because I felt I should help out as much as I could with my project that is 4 wks away from launching - not the greatest timing to be sick. Turns out that was possibly a mistake.

I figured I should listen to my doctor, and the ladies from work, and stay home an extra day to make sure that I fully recover and most importantly, don't infect anyone at the office - the teasing would never end. Besides, I still need to finish watching season 2 of Mad Men.

I know I've written about this a few times now, but I promise, this is that last. I have been humming and ha-ing over whether or not to do the half marathon for a few months, and after finally being bribed with deep-fried turkey dinner, I decided to sign up. So last weekend I headed up to Kelowna with Streefy and Kmay for Thanksgiving and to run the half marathon. It was a good start to the weekend when I got a call from Streefy advising me that my running cohorts are also lushes, and that one of them drank too much the night before and missed her class Sat morning, and the other one just drank too much. Needless to say, they were more than eager to sleep the rest of their hang over away en route to Kelowna.

After gathering the hungover troops, a pit stop in Hope for some greasy lunch for the lushes, we arrived at the Streefkerks just in time for lasagna dinner. While the wine was not free flowing for us that night, their wine cellar was indeed quite a site to behold. We called it an early night since we had to get up the next morning at 6 am. The day of the half marathon started out a chilly one, -5 kind of chilly. We headed down to the water to the start line and 2 hrs & 16 mins later, we crossed the finish line, still unable to feel my fingers.

The rest of the day was spent popping 'candy' (aka pain killers), mostly horizontal and watching mindless chick flicks while Joan and Cornholio proceeded to make thanksgiving dinner. That night we feasted on smoked turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, yams and brussels sprouts and I have to say - it was de-lish! Though I did miss out on deep fried turkey, considering my mom has kiboshed all future turkey dinner meals, I was just excited I got a turkey dinner at all :)

Until I head to Montreal for the first time ever! Thinking I should start practicing my french but I'm sure it'll come back to me, like riding a bike. I didn't spend 12 yrs in French Immersion for nothing.

Reminiscing over the summer, I realized it's been the summer of travel. Doesn't quite have the same resounding effect as Summer of Clive (although that could also be mistaken for a really bad B grade horror movie), but it's been fun all the same. I went to Boston for the first time and loved every minute, especially the Red Sox game. I got to spend some quality time in T-dot and hang out with Tan. I managed to finally head back to NYC which I have been wanting to do for many years and loved it even more than the first time. Somewhat ironic, however, that all my trips have been back east. I'm sure that means something...

Well, analysis of the reasoning behind my recent east coast vacations aside, in 12 sleeps I get on a plane and head out to Frenchie land to visit Santos. I've been looking forward to this trip for a while now. Not only do I get to visit, what I've heard, is a great city, I can't wait to have some real poutine and eat at the many restaurants I've heard so much about from the Alpha Sigma Sigma crew's visit in early Sept. Well, that and the fact that this is going to be my last vacation for the next little while because, whilst planning my vacation for the year, I seem to have taken it all in a 6 month span, and completely forgot that my vacation year starts in April. Fail!

Here's to spending the dreariest months of winter in Vancouver.

As outdoor volleyball came to an end, Wednesday's usual suspects decided to continue the debauchery that ensued during the summer and join a dodgeball league. A few have played in previous years, but this is the first time I've ever been part of the regular team.

Having a general idea of the game, I was primarily interested in not getting smoked by the ball and having my throws be somewhat respectable and not look like they were thrown by a girl. Although years of softball have ensured there is some technique to my throws, when you have little hands, it's hard to grab a hold of those balls (yes, pun intended) well enough to produce a decent throw with some level of intensity.

I went to my 2nd game in 4 wks tonight and was given a first hand introduction to how incredibly serious some people take it. Not being the type to get overly competitive, I was naively thinking everyone's competitive level would hover close to mine. Man was I wrong. I knew it was going to be an interesting game when I arrived only to find the other team monopolizing the little elementary school gym stage. One was playing the piano while everyone was stretching and...wait for it...singing. Yup, you heard me - singing some random song, occasionally stopping to check everyone's pitch. And odd site to behold to say the least.

Then the game got started. Every hit, every catch, every dodge - the peanut gallery was jumping to their feet as if we'd won the Stanley Cup. If the team won the game, everyone leaped off the bench and went running to the middle of the gym to congratulate those who were on. Unable to believe the level of intensity coming from our opponents, not to mention the male peacocking from, well, not the most attractive man on the other team, really - all we could do was laugh quietly amongst ourselves. And of course beat them at this game they all appeared to love so much. :)